Nikon has announced their intention to support the fledgling PTP/IP protocol in a future Wi-Fi wireless transmitter for Nikon pro digital cameras.

PTP/IP is meant to greatly reduce the hassle of setting up a camera and computer for the transmission of photos over a Wi-Fi connection. PTP/IP is derived from the USB-only PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) already common to digital cameras, and which is largely self-configuring.

Nikon has not yet announced a new transmitter that uses PTP/IP, though a press release indicates that one is to be announced "very soon." The press release also notes that the new transmitter will be able to transmit faster than the current WT-1/1a transmitter, which is limited to 802.11b, and that the upcoming product will support both PTP/IP and FTP. It also hints that we'll see PTP/IP in future Coolpix models.

More information on PTP/IP (which seems to be referred to also as PTP-IP) is on the FotoNation web site, as well as in a Nikon press release. PTP/IP will apparently be a close cousin to a future version of the MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) currently being developed by Microsoft.

Though Nikon has not yet released details of the first device that will be PTP/IP-enabled, Steve Heiner, Nikon USA's General Manager of Digital SLR Systems, says that their implementation of the PTP/IP protocol will be compatible with both Windows and Mac systems.

There is no word yet on whether PTP/IP support will be rolled into the WT-1/1a transmitter, or whether the new, faster transmitter will work with the D2H.